russia deal saudi bandar syria

Saudi Prince Bandar and Russian President Putin. The photo is old, but the two know each other.

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Moscow rejects rumours about bribe of Saudi Arabia over Syria.

Russia has rejected the rumours about the attempt of bribe in terms of Syria by the Saudi Prince and intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan (Arabic: الأمير بندر بن سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎) as well as the reports about an alleged deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Vladimir Putin has met with the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan in last week.

After the meeting in the Russian capital Moscow, several rumours emerged that the Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan tried to bribe the Russian President Putin in regards of Moscow’s stance and support for Syria, while other sources have stated after the meeting between the Saudi intelligence chief (since mid-2012) and the Russian President Putin in Moscow that the Saudi Prince is searching for a way to leave the position as one of the main sponsors for the terrorism and bloodshed in Syria without losing its face and without causing problems for Saudi Arabia.

After Qatar has allegedly left the scene as sponsor of the terrorist and jihadist forces in Syria because of other more important topics for Qatar, several sources were convinced that the totalitarian dictatorship in Saudi Arabia is also trying to leave the scene as main sponsor of the violent forces in Syria fighting against the secular government of President Bashar al-Assad in the capital, Damascus.

However, it seems currently not to be the situation that the totalitarian dictatorship of Saudi Arabia really has the intentions to stop its support for the terrorist forces in Syria. Further, the rumours about the attempts of the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan to bribe the Russian President Vladimir Putin might have been true but it was already clear since the emerge of those rumours about the meeting of Vladimir Putin and Prince Bandar in Moscow that Russia will not agree on such deals and reject such offers by Saudi Arabia.

Russia has now publicly rejected that its President Vladimir Putin had ever discussed such a deal with the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan to change Moscow’s stance in terms of Syria and the Syrian conflict and to drop the support of Syria at the UN Security Council (UNSC).

Russian president’s foreign policy advisor, Yury Ushakov, said yesterday, that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has not discussed concrete questions about military cooperation with the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan at the meeting of both in Moscow on July 31. The top policy aide of Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, further stated that Putin and Prince Bandar bin Sultan have debated about important regional topics and bilateral connections but that Prince Bandar has not suggested such deals to Vladimir Putin in their meeting.

Saudi Prince Bandar and Russian President Putin. The photo is old, but the two know each other.

In addition, Yury Ushakov also added in his public statement about these rumours of an attempt by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to bribe the Russian President Putin in terms of Syria that Russia’s President did not discuss deals with the Saudi intelligence chief.

Russia probably had to reject and to deny these rumours about an alleged deal between Moscow and Riyadh in terms of Syria and the Syrian conflict, although it has been clear since the emerge of these reports (Reuters reported it first) that Russia will not accept such an attempt of bribe by Saudi Arabia in order to change their stance on Syria and to stop the support for the Syrian side. It is to assume that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has more foresight than the Saudi Prince Bandar in terms of regional and global developments.

The end of the Russian support for Syria, while Moscow has always underlined that they do not support Syria because of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because they do not care about an individual person, would trigger several other developments in the region and even on the global scene. Thus, even in case the attempt to bribe Moscow by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan is true, although Moscow rejected talks about such a deal between Russian President Putin and Saudis Bandar now, it was already clear that Russia will not agree on such offers by Saudi Arabia.

The recent rejection by Moscow came after the often biased Reuters news agency said in a report that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan has offered Moscow a package of economic incentives if Moscow agrees to scale back its support for the secular Syrian government and President Bashar al-Assad in the capital, Damascus. The questionable report by the biased news agency Reuters said on Wednesday that the proposed deal was offered by the Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week.

Of course, both have met in Moscow. However, Putin is not able to afford to agree on such an attempt of a bribe by Saudi Arabia and he has no interests to do so or to change the support for the Syrian people – as stated, Russia does not care about an individual person such as President Bashar al-Assad, but Moscow cares about the Syrians in general. In contrast to the so-called external “Syrian opposition”.

The alleged sources of the Syrian opposition have said that Saudi Prince Bandar offered to buy up to USD 15 billion of Russian weapons as well as ensuring that Persian Gulf gas would not challenge Russia’s gas sales to Europe and Reuters has been happy to be able to report on something like this. However, the sources either never existed or this Syrian opposition lied, as usual.

But under consideration of the new President of the so-called “Syrian National Coalition”, who is a slave of Saudi Arabia and has won the “presidential elections” of the questionable and divided “Syrian National Coalition” against the Qatari candidate, it seems that Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan might have had the idea to bribe Russia with money and a huge arms deal but has then changed his intention when he met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

So or so – there has been no deal between the totalitarian dictatorship of Saudi Arabia and Russia on Syria. Russia has not yet completely betrayed the Syrian people and still supports the war on terror by the Syrian Arab army (SAA) because Moscow knows that if the Syrian army fails, the terror will move forward in direction to their Russian soil.

6 Comments

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that an agreement was reached with the US side to hold a meeting between Russian and US experts by the end of August to discuss preparations for holding the international conference on Syria. ”

“But the idea that Russia could be turned from supporting Assad in exchange for a couple of arms deals and gas distribution guarantees is laughable. “This is not a situation in which the Saudis can simply buy their way,” says Yezid Sayigh, a Syria scholar and senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center based in Beirut. The Russians aren’t supporting Syria simply to maintain a market for their prolific arms industry, nor do they fear Gulf competition in Europe. Russia’s biggest fear, not unlike that of the U.S., is of the Syrian state falling and leaving a dangerous vacuum in its wake. And Moscow believes that the integrity of Assad’s regime is still the greatest guarantor against such chaos.”

thanks for the comments and quotes (links to Time). In terms of market for weapons.. Syria had not much money as state before and was not such an interesting market for Russia in the region. And after the two years, Syria is finally broke now. The elite has fetched the money and went away, the jobless rate has increased (has been bad before the crisis already) and the economy is destroyed as well as the most industries.. and that Reuters brought the story about the bribe first and totally convinced.. yeah. Its Reuters lol.. not to mention that Russia is fighting jihadists itself every day since years on its soil and hm on its old soil.. they are sure not interested that the more secular government in Syria falls and some Muslim Brothers and Jihadists or even the Al Qaeda offshoot(s) take the power..mh